Quick Moroccan style chicken tagine with dried apricots & crunchy cashews

Quick, delicious & warming chicken tagine with exciting spices

This dish has it all: tender chicken (aka protein), subtle sweetness, a hint of lemon, a nice crunch and lots of vegetables. It’s delicious, warming and just a great & light supper for cold evenings. Personally, I love the complexity of this dish, because it has so many different components that come together and form one great dish.

The advantage is that you can make this chicken tagine in large batches, so it’s nice when you have lots of guest or want to make a few extra portions to take to work with you. It’s also a super easy recipe, so even if you don’t cook much you’ll be able to master this without problems. 🙂

Let’s get started!

Serves 4

Ingredients

600 g chicken thighs
1l chicken stock
2 large carrots, cubed
1 onion, peeled and cut in large chunks
1 red bell pepper, de-cored and sliced
1 green bell pepper, de-cored and sliced
1 tsp runny honey
100 g dried apricots, halved
50 g cashews
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
a thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 small red chili, finely chopped
zest of half a lemon
1 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
1/2 tsp anise seeds, crushed
2 cardamom pods, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp coconut oil
salt, pepper

Method

1. Place coriander seeds, anise seeds and cardamom pods in a mortar and crush. Mix with ground cumin, salt and pepper and rub the chicken thighs with the spices mixture.

2. Heat the coconut oil in a large pot. Fry the meat with ginger, garlic and chili for 5 minutes until the chicken is crispy and golden. Add carrots, onion and bell peppers and fry for another 5 minutes at medium heat.

3. Pour in the chicken stock, add cashews, curry power, lemon zest, cinnamon stick, ground cloves, honey and apricots and gently simmer for about 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has reduced. Season to taste with salt and pepper. In case the sauce doesn’t thicken stir together a tablespoon of flour and some water until smooth, add to the chicken stew and simmer for a bit longer.

4. Once the chicken is cooked through, serve right away with rice or couscous on the side.

Enjoy! 🙂